Three Roman brothers raise their arms to swear on the swords their father holds out, vowing to fight three champions of Alba Longa to settle a war. At right the women of the family sink in grief, bound to the enemy by marriage and betrothal. David invented the oath scene himself, and its hard-edged clarity made it a model of Neoclassical painting.
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Three arches frame three groups: sons, father, women. The father's hand gripping the swords sits just in front of the painting's vanishing point.
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